Wednesday, September 08, 2010

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Interactive Maps

Orlando Sentinel

The golden oldies are mostly gone but a venture off Florida’s interstates and turnpike will still take motorists past some historic roadside signs designed to lure tourists. The Sentinel’s Data Central mapped a number, with pop-up photos. Many also have short narratives.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/orl-historicsigns-lid-map,0,367188.htmlstory

The Washington Post

The Post’s Explorer puts an enormous amount of information at your cursor tip. Plug in your current address, or any other location, as a center point and Local Explorer maps not just crime reports, school data, and home sales but adds places of interest so visitors and new residents can quickly find hospitals, stores, theaters and Metro stops and Washington’s many attractions. They can even check the classifieds.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/real-estate/neighborhoods/index.html

Roanoke Times

Roanoke’s DataSphere separately lists and maps a variety of databases, from weather data going back to the 1940s, scrap tire piles around the city, ethnic markets, downtown off street parking and reader-supplied black bear sightings.

http://www.roanoke.com/datasphere/wb/xp-index

San Francisco Chronicle

Okay, it’s not Hollywood. Still, quite a few popular movies have been filmed in this town. The Chronicle’s Data Center shows you where and links you to each movie’s trailer. The site also offers a variety of entertainment and recreation related maps on hiking and outdoors activities, golf courses, museums and art galleries, open spaces, and restaurants top rated by the paper.

http://www.sfgate.com/maps/movies

Longmont Times-Call

Forty area sites are mapped in Longmont’s Art in Public Places, with pop out photos, descriptions, and artist credits.

http://www.timescall.com/specialsections/aipp/index.asp

The Wilmington News Journal

DelNav combines property sales and prices, schools and districts, serious crime data and zip codes as optional features on a single map and then links to maps that provide greater detail in the category selected. It also links to a Delaware State Archives site that offers historic photos and stories.

http://php.delawareonline.com/real/maps/baseMap.php

The Oklahoman

Oklahoma City had 63,000 code enforcement complaints in 2008, ranging from abandoned vehicles to big junk to vicious dogs. This Oklahoman map lets readers pinpoint the violations, learn what the city did in response, and how quickly.

http://newsok.com/right-to-know

Cincinnati Enquirer

CinciNavigator tops the Data Center page. A click or two allows the visitor to select from more than 20 mapping schemes, including the latest local news stories. Topics include crime, traffic, garage sales, local events, and gas prices. The details pop up with a cursor touch and appear in a box below.

http://data.cincinnati.com/navigator/

Minneapolis Star Tribune

After the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge, the Star Tribune used data on 300 bridges in the state from the National Bridge Inventory and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to create this map. A click on any of the markers provides the inspection rating and other data on the bride. Readers can filter the map selections to view by bridge age, traffic volume and ratings.

http://ww2.startribune.com/projects/maps/bridges/bridges.html?elr=KArks:DCiUP:Yc0D:aDyUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

Los Angeles Daily News

The Daily News uses an interactive map to explore the controversy over medical use of marijuana, pinpointing area dispensaries, raided locations, and and to show which cities have an ordinance, a ban or a moratoria. There are also links to related stories, to relevant documents, and to involved agencies and organizations.

http://lang.dailynews.com/socal/pot/index.html

Indianapolis Star

Map Indy lets viewers select their hometown in an eight county area and then call up information from up to 15 databases, depending on the availability of public records in each county. Users can also plug in a specific address. Databases include health inspections, traffic cameras, largest employers and garage sales. A collection of historic photos is planned.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS03/80327050

Interactive Maps

Just a click or two from the Big Picture to Your Home

Interactive maps are a terrific way to combine the big picture and micro news, giving the reader a community-wide view of a particular subject, then focusing in on the neighborhood or the specifics of an incident.

Most newspapers began their mapping with local crime reports, providing a public safety (or lack thereof) overview. But mapping features are increasingly being expanded to provide a macro/micro perspective on a broad range of topics: economic news such as home sales, foreclosures and layoffs; traffic and parking reports; entertainment and lifestyle information, consumer data, weather and natural disaster patterns; and community highlights and history.

Here are some of the most useful and fun mapping features we found. They provide a sense of what can be done.

Introduction

Interactive Maps

Informative, Innovative, Interesting

Freedom of Information

Columns and Credits

Caveats and Explanations

Data Center Names

Public Records Databases

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